Leaving Russia

We had a rough time sleeping on Monday night. The gentlemen in the next room were having a very late night / early morning meeting / party. We got up early to meet Svetlana to go on a quest for an item for the fundraiser that I'm working on, Night of Promise, which brings aid to Russian orphanages. She led us through the hussle and bussle of the Moscow Metro. It was quite impressive. Each station is decorated in a particular theme and each is uniquely beautiful. We found our way to Arabat Street which is a pedestrian street with street vendors and a multitude of shops and eating establishments. After a quick paced walk down the street, we finally located THE shop. It is a two story store that specializes in Russia souvenirs. We headed upstairs in search of hand-painted wooden toy chests - one for the NOP and one for Sasha. They were beautiful. It will be the perfect thing to store all of his Russian treasures, lifebook, etc. in. We also found another traditional Russian outfit and a St. Basil's music box. This store was a good find. The women upstairs quickly began disassembling the two toy chests so we could fit them into our suitcase (if you're going to do this, let me recommend that you bring your HUGE suitcase).

We had to rush back down Arabat Street to hop the metro back to our hotel. We were late and our arrival into the lobby was greated by our translator and driver. Oops. Our translator was quite gracious and shared that 'no one is ever on time in Moscow'.

We made it to the airport with plenty of time to spare. Our translator escorted us into the airport where our bags were x-rayed. We said good bye at the entrance into the Delta gate. All our bags were x-rayed again. We presented our passports to the gate attendent and made our way into the line where all our checked bags were hand searched (my recommendation for future travelers is to bag your laundry and clothes. This will prevent the stray sock or something more private from being flung across the baggage check area). We passed inspection and headed to the ticket counter. Let me assure you that this isn't a speedy process. We finally had our bags checked and our tickets and passed through visa / passport control without incident. I have to admit that with all the running around, the lack of sleep, the pushing and shoving in lines that is just part of the way of Russia, the bathrooms that were outside the gate area (which we didn't discover until we were part way checked into the gate), the non-stop smoking in public places and the fact that I couldn't understand most of what was being said - I was done. I was ready to be back in the U.S.

Our flight home was a bit more comfortable as we were on the two seat part of the plane. We had a newly adopted little girl that sat behind us. She looked to be about 6 months old but she was actually 18 months. Wow. She had never heard her voice so she 'practiced' the entire ride home. Her parents were real troopers and despite their obvious fatigue, they helped her in any way that they could. The folks in the row in front of us provided some local color. They were Russian and decided, at some point during the middle of the flight, that it was happy hour. They broke out a bottle of their duty free whisky and a bottle of vodka and proceeded to do shots. The excitement continued until the stewardess confiscated the liquor and informed them that she was contemplating having the marshalls meet them in Atlanta. We then discovered that the man sitting in front of us actually knew a lot more English than we had originally thought. Perhaps not the English that we normally use in every day speaking, but he was very capable of letting her know what he thought of her taking away his booze. Very exciting.

As we touched down in Atlanta, little Sarah Ashley became a United States citizen. Her parents embraced with tears in their eyes. They were home with their new, beautiful daughter. It was a touching moment which was quickly forgotten as Nathan and I tried to figure out how we could claim our bags, get through customs, get to the domestic departure gates AND make our flights in less than an hour. Ugh. Did I mention that I was done?